PETENAUD

Have seen the ads for a Ford Focus brand new (Ltd edition thing) for £9995.00, question is do i flog the Classic scooby (reckon on about £7500 for a 97 uk turbo) and put anaother £21/2k and buy the new car.

Anyone got a 1.6 focus, whats i really like. any good?

Or do i keep the best car i have ever owned - the Impreza?

Road Rager

i wouldnt sell anything to own a ford, lol

Unless it was a GT500 ( gone in 60 seconds ) , thats 1 ford worth owning.

quite simply NO!!!

Brun

Why?

PETENAUD

yeah i know, but thing is i only use the scooby at the weekend, drive round in a 10 year old 1.6l escort rest of the time, so as not to load the miles on the scoob. I only drove about 30 miles in january in the thing.

Figure if i dont use it, why have it, might as well just buy the focus.

Owned the scoob 18months and looked at loads before i bought it, so if i sell it would i be depressed after a few days?

Could even get a MG ZR105 for £10k, and they do handle well.

Road Rager

if i were you, and i do see where you are coming from, i would go for something else jap, but better on fuel etc...

im just a jap car slag, i dont like much else.

PETENAUD

Whats a good jap car for £10k

And i will not have a suzuki (again) as the last one i had was worse than my old MG Meastro

rav4640

ive spent over 30,000 on my 03 sti, for the car and bits and bobs for it, that only ever comes out thr garage at weekends, sometimes only once a month, run around in a honda concerto the rest of the time, BUT, i know its there when i want it and nothing cant beat the smile it gives me when i do use it.

Dazzling

Lexus...i just selling a IS300 (after buying a scooby) but that is 3 years old and 18k. You can get a nice 1999/2000 model IS200 (2 litre) for approx. £10K and they are a fantastic looking/driving car with every conceivable toy.

Thats my recommendation anyway.

PETENAUD

Must admit i do like the IS200

Thing with the focus is its brand new, 3 years warranty, no mot for 3 years, abs, srs, cdl for £10k.

Do like the way they drive.



"ive spent over 30,000 on my 03 sti, for the car and bits and bobs for it, that only ever comes out thr garage at weekends, sometimes only once a month, run around in a honda concerto the rest of the time, BUT, i know its there when i want it and nothing cant beat the smile it gives me when i do use it."

Know what you mean, big smile every time i drive it, thing is the GF has a scoob to, so will still be able to drive one, when she lets me, and she likes the ford to.

Dont really want to lose the scoob, but its reality time i think.

Dazzling

Had loads of cars and a few headaches with FORD (Fix Or Repair Daily) although the current lot mondeo/focus are better than ever.

Have driven a 2002 focus (2 litre) and and a Lexus IS200. No contest.

Just seen quite a few IS200 on Autotrader website for <10K! A snip honestly. Buy from a Lexus dealer and you will find you will get 12 months warranty. IMHO warranties on Lexus are less important than something like a Ford as they are soooooo much more relaible.

I was told by a Lexus Service Manger that unlike most brands, the Lexus dealership Service Departments do not even cover half of their overheads as opposed to a profitable Ford Service Department.

Up to you....just my 10p worth

PETENAUD

Dazzling

I have a lexus dealer near me and have had good reports on lexus and their customer service.

I do like the is200 alot, and you r right def worth a look. Knew a guy with a ls400 with over 300,000 miles on it, swore by them

Oh BOIIOCKS now you have got me really thinking.


Regards


pete

SC008Y_MAD

iTrader: (5)

One word NO stick with the scooby even if you were thinking of getting the Focus RS which has that weird front diff! i would't bother!

unless it was the Ford Shelby Mustang GT 500 'Eleanor' (gone in 60 seconds) as said by Road Rager

16vmarc

Id look into the Lexus!!!

PETENAUD

Ford cant be that bad, had a moondayo td that i did 100K in in and apart from service bits it never went wrong.

Cant see any lexus is200 with less than 30k on for £10k tho.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

You will miss the scooby, trust me. Mine's only been in the garage for a week and I miss it already (although having to get the train to work might have something to do with that). It's easy to take the scooby for granted, but every time I drive a 'normal' car, it reminds me why I put up with all the fuel and garage bills.

For a while I considered buying a second car to commute in and keeping the scooby for weekends, but it's not really that economic to do. You still have to tax, insure and service the scooby, so the only real savings are fuel and the possibility of less depreciation. Balance that against the depreciation on the new car, road tax and insurance (with no NCB, remember) and it works out as cheap to just drive the scooby everywhere.

Based on that argument, my second car is a Westfield - £300 fully comp insurance and negligible depreciation, cheap parts (although it does get through a lot of them!) and I get a few thousand thrilling miles every year. Much better than a poxy little tin box with an asthmatic engine and wipe-clean seat covers.

JohnnyR6

My mate did exactly what your thinking, sold a my98 uk and bought a focus silver. The focus is a great car ( i have 1 as a daily runner) very reliable, good handling but he so wishes he kept the scoob as he misses the power at times. Why don't you upgrade your escort? you can get a 99 model focus for about 5k now. deprciation on a new focus is quite high, my mates cost 12k just over a year ago and is now worth 7.5k

sti-04!!

well, can i say, before i bought my RS, i had a 1.8 focus collection (its 130ps compared to standard 115ps), i done the usual! induction kit, exhaust, chip & cams, it was good well roughly 180bhp (blew ST170's), though too much power going through the FWD but i fitted a blower & it pushed it above the 230BHP, but i got bored & i test drove an RS an at the time loved it so bought it, but again am bored so i have ordered an STi which hopefully will sort the problem. My point is give it 3 months an you will be scanning the autotrader for a scoob, dont do it my friend as there aint nothin like a scoob !!!

Cheers

sti-04!!

Andy S.

We have both, I have a My99 uk turbo and the wife has got a 51 Reg Focus zetec 1.6 auto.

The focus is a nice car and shows that ford has come a long way sice the escort. It handles well being the zetec spec (stiffer suspension), still regarded as the best handling car in its class!. But it is somewhat gutless, or may be I am just spoilt by the scoob. Personally there is no way I would swap cars with the wife, I would miss the power and pure grip of the scoob compared to the focus.
If I was comparing it on looks and interior then the focus wins every time, but I didnot buy my scoob because it looked nice, I bought it because it was fun to drive!

Just start driving the scoob more!

PS if you go for a focus dont get an Auto changing gear mid bend can be interesting to say the least!

scooby daz

i only get my scoob out at weekends, the rest of the week i drive round in my citreon van. and every time i get in it i realy do still get a buzz, the scooby that is not the van.my uk97 is 280bhp while at santa pod i nailed a new rs focus by nearly 2 seconds. dont do it keep the scooby, you say you looked for ages for a good one, as did i, after a few weeks of the focus you will have to go through all that again i expect, when you are disopointed with focus. good luck..

wrxmania

I have a Focus courtesy car (1.6 Zetec) as some kn*b in a white van smashed in the back of my 2003 WRX yesterday.

The focus drives nice and i reasonably pokey for a 1.6 and does not sound too bad. But the looks, the interior, especially the wheels are all so done and over the hill - used to be innovative but nowhere near a classic like a Scoob. It is a great car for what it is, is reasonably built and probably quite reliable too but it is no Impreza.

My WRX has been in the body shop now for 1 and a half hours and all I want to do is drive it, inspite of my neck, back and head hurting like buggery thanks to the rear impact from the van.

Don't be tempted by a Focus, however new - new does NOT mean reliable or fault free, especially in a Ford - their customer service record (I have owned several Fords) is pretty poor.

The Lexus IS200 is an absolute cracker though - if you sell the Scoob you MUST buy one of these. Great driving, V6 engine, luxury travel. I have driven Toyota before I bought my Scoob for most of my driving life and Toyota/Lexus dealers are the absolute best there is - cannot be faulted, any of them I have ever dealt with. The cars are faultlessly realiable as you can get so the service departments are quite flexable and relaxed with you as they get much less hassle from owners. Lexus are incredible good buys - you CANNOT be disappointed. I am a paid up member of the Toyota Ethusiast Club and the editor of the TEC Topics mag they publish drives a G reg Lexus LS400 with a moons worth of miles on it and it is perfect. Lexus and Toyota literally last forever.

Well, doesn't that blurb boost up Toyota and on a Subaru forum as well. Good luck with your choice but for everyone on this forum it would be the Scoob every time - just get out and drive it more - get your moneys worth out of it. They are good daily drivers too!

Dream Weaver

The missus has a Focus 1.8 Zetec and its bloody great. Really nice to drive, nippy and an amazing gearbox - best change ever.

Matt P

I used a 1.6 Focus to do some test work on a year or so ago and was pleasantly surprised. As I knew it was going to the crusher once I'd finished with it ( ) I exploited its limits, on road and closed track. I thought the engine, while clearly not having the power of a scoob, was a cracker, smooth to the cutout and not afraid of working at high rpm. That together with a sweet gearbox allows you to flat change all day long so I did! Handling pretty good although it was a bit too understeery for me.

But the bottom line is that it doesn't matter what tricks it has up its sleeve, it's still no match for a scooby and nor is anything else for that matter. Besides which I bet a brand spanking Focus costs more in depreciation over the next 3 years than your scoob costs to run And as for a Lexus, after a Scoob?? Really?!

wrxmania

PETENAUD - I think you will find the anser to your question is NO NO NO

sulli

We now have both a Scooby and a Focus.
Contrary to popular belief the Focus can look pretty good:



The Focus is nice to drive, handles well, has loads of toys (we have aircon+climate, HFS, All electric, leather, T/C etc).

But, it will never drive like a scoob. You will miss the flat 4 burble, the 4WD grip and the out and out power and ability to embarrass most cars on the road. Plus, knowing the used car market, don't rely on getting £7500 for your scooby. If you love the scoob just keep it as a weekend toy.

PETENAUD

thanks for the replys all

Gonna have a good think about it before i make my mind up.

What i need is a nice sunny day so i can take the scoob out for a 100 mile blast, kast time i did that i just fell in love again.

regards to all and what r some of u doing a 5 in the morning on here?

PS. here is my car